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Aliens Have Invaded Groundhog Day

If Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers had a baby, Edge of Tomorrow would be the result…

I realize they didn’t try to hide the fact that this was an actiony version of Groundhog Day, but really very little of this felt original. I’m not saying it was bad. It just sort of felt like one of those remakes that strays a long way from the source material. In this case the source material for the movie is a Manga comic book called “All You Need is Kill,” by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. But the source material for the book is a little more obvious.

First, the Groundhog Day comparisons: The entire plot is about Cage (Tom Cruise) reliving the same day over and over again until he dies each time. Instead of that day being Groundhog Day, it’s a futuristic version of the D-Day landing at Normandy. So, sprinkle a little Saving Private Ryan in there too, especially with the shaky camera work. Also, he takes a few days getting used to what’s happening, uses it selfishly until deciding that’s pointless, then learns to use it for good. Also also, Emily Blunt’s character is named Rita, just like Andie MacDowell in Groundhog Day.

Second, the Starship Troopers comparisons: The movie begins with news coverage of the warring world. Also The creatures that attack mankind are not humanoid in nature, but rather very bug-like. Also also, they spend a lot of the movie searching for the Omega, a large intelligence core controlling the other soldier creatures. Strikingly similar to the brain bug from Starship Troopers. Also also also, we’re so far advanced in the future of both movies that men and women share the same barracks.

Now, if you remove all prior knowledge of the other two movies, this wasn’t a bad picture. It was exciting, entertaining and had a few twists the others did not have. Not only did this film give an explanation for why he is reliving the same day, it also gave a way for him to lose that ability.

One minor issue I have with the cover design… when I rented the Blu-ray, I literally thought I was renting a Tom Cruise movie called Live Die Repeat. The tagline appeared in huge letters while the title was obscurely located in what appeared to be a hashtag at the bottom. I didn’t know how I had missed this Tom Cruise movie, and I couldn’t find it listed on IMDb!

Let me know what YOU thought of Edge of Tomorrow in the comments!

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